


Made For Peace

by LLReid



Category: Love & Legends (Visual Novel)
Genre: Cuddles, F/F, Recovery, Snuggling, dyslexic writer, happiness, morning fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-09 05:39:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18631918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LLReid/pseuds/LLReid
Summary: Sweet morning fluff.





	Made For Peace

**Author's Note:**

> There are a few really non-graphic mentions of abuse in this one.

Watching her fiancé as she slept, Helena was absolutely baffled that she had ever mistaken the strange girl for the Witch Queen. True, the bone structure of their faces and their stature was identical, but Athena was soft, even when she was not trying to she oozed a captivating sort of gentleness that the Witch Queen was incapable of even pretending to hold within her heart.

She had known the Witch Queen intimately for years, but had only ever witnessed her sleeping once, as she preferred to dismiss her from her chambers each night after she had tired of her rather than share her bed. It had been a mercy, really, even if at the time all she had felt was the sharp pang of rejection every time she was sent away limping and bleeding from the trauma inflicted upon her body — sometimes she had even had to crawl back to her own quarters on her hands and knees as standing had been too much of a blight upon her body once the Witch Queen’s attention span had fizzled out. The one time Helena had been allowed sleep by her side after she had slaughtered her entire village and had witnessed her at rest it had come as no surprise that the soulless creature looked more like a corpse than a woman, laying rigid on her mattress without so much as a single waxy hair out of place and that god awful crown still on her head as her fragile ego prevented her from ever taking it off for even a moment.

Much to Helena’s quiet delight, her Athena was the exact opposite.

Every morning she would awaken to find sweet rosy cheeks hidden behind a mass of untamed dark waves, the thick strands somehow consuming everything within their reach as she slept — sometimes, much to her bewilderment, Helena would even awaken to find strands of it either in her mouth or tangled up in knots with her own hair. Such it seemed was one of the perils of sharing a bed with such a cuddly person, but it served more as an amusement than anything else. Waking up to find her vision restricted through silky waves or her hair knotted with her love’s so badly only magic could separate them was a delightful ‘problem’ to have.

It did not matter where they rested their heads at night, whether it was in a makeshift army encampment or their own bedroom in the heart of Wolfson Castle, Athena always snuggled as close to her as was physically possible for her to do so without fully laying on top of her. The need for such closeness had become just as important to her as it was to the younger woman, so much so that sleep had become impossible if she did not have her in her arms. The fact that she was not nearly as cold a person as the Witch Queen meant that cuddling her, feeling her skin flush against hers, served as a security blanket of sorts even in her dreams — even if her seemingly permanently cold feet did unintentionally wake her up from time to time when they brushed against her legs beneath the covers. She had resorted to warming them with magic once or twice, rather than rolling away from her on the mattress, but had never mentioned it to Athena. How such small and dainty feet could somehow be so cold, even in the height of summer and even when the fireplace was filled with roaring flames, she had absolutely no idea...but it was just another endearing facet of sharing a bed with her fiancé that she had come to adore.

Having grown up without a bed of her own and sleeping on a damp dirt floor every night at the foot of the bed of two people who made no secret of the fact they would have preferred it if she did not exist, and then coming to associate beds as the place she would be abused and broken to the very brinks of her humanity, she had never dared imagine that one would ever feel like such a place of safety to her. She never imagined that she would have a bedroom that felt like home, let alone a comfortable bed and a love to share it with.

“Hmmmphhh.” The pained whine muffled into the crook of her neck made her smile, Athena was never one to let her offence that mornings even existed go by unnoticed. The overly dramatic noises that her tiny body somehow emitted in her half-asleep state made it sound more like she was being murdered than rousing from sleep of her own accord, and it never ceased to make laughter begin to bubble up in her stomach.

“Good morning to you, too, my love,” she murmured whilst affectionately brushing the pad of her thumb across the side of her jaw.

“Mmmpphhh.” At the soft groan Athena nuzzled her face even further into her neck, the gentle brush of velvet lips against the skin only widening the grin on her face.

“Take your time...I endeavoured to do my very best to exhaust you last night and it seems that I succeeded as we have slept through breakfast, once again.”

“I slept through Solaire’s faerie bell muffins?!,” Athena croaked, her voice still raspy and childlike from hours of undisturbed sleep. The mention of food was the quickest way to pull her out of the groggy state she would otherwise remain in until playfully dragged from the comfort and warmth of their bed.

“Fear not, I suspect when we did not appear she will have saved a few especially for you — that is if Iseul and Altea did not get to them first. You know how they get the mornings after their visits to the tavern so they may have eaten the entire plate between themselves.”

A breathy giggle was muffled into her neck, briefly tickling at her skin until the mage leaned back ever so slightly so that she was looking at her. It did not seem to matter how often those big sleepy doe eyes were batted in her direction, she never tired of that look of absolute adoration directed entirely her way. As difficult as she often found reading another’s emotions to be, there were no doubts in her mind that Athena loved her just as deeply as she loved her. Despite knowing her darkest sins, the extent of her power, and having pulled her out of the most terrifying corners of her mind numerous times the mage loved her above all others, that she was absolutely certain of.

“God, I really miss postmates right now.”

“Well perhaps once the war is done you can introduce the internet and make plenty of coin with your own magical delivery service.”

“That is a good idea...but my fat ass would spend it all having people bring me food from every domain and I would never leave the bed. Like, do you even realise how much trouble we’d be in if those apple pastries from the elven domain were available to me every day? My blood sugar would be so high that I’d have a heart attack.

“Is that so?,” she smirked, playfully bopping the tip of her nose with her fingertips. “Well we cannot have that.”

“We definitely can’t, since I’m positive we don’t have a defibrillator here and whilst I’m no doctor I’m pretty sure that fucking sucks when it comes to sugar induced heart attacks...”

“I would ask what a ‘defibrillator’ is but you have a very mystified look on your face right now and it is far too amusing for me to concentrate on your answer.”

“Thinking this early in the morning is practically hard labour.”

“Afternoon, you mean.”

“Mm...that too,” Athena smirked as her eyes momentarily flickered closed.

Helena huffed in amusement before gently pressing her lips against the brunette’s, cradling her face as if it was the most precious treasure in the world in the palm of her hand.

Followed by another chaste kiss.

Then another.

And another.

In the arms of her love it was all too easy to forget how difficult the hours after waking had once been for her. Mornings had once been the time of day when the pain of the abuse from the night before was at its worse, the same and self-hatred along with physical marks left behind had always overwhelmed her in the light of day. Mornings had once been filled with her fellow generals petty arguments and the Witch Queen barking orders at them as if they were dogs. Mornings had once been purely fear, and pain, and innate desire to kill herself in the most painful way possible because she believed she deserved the suffering...but no longer.

Now mornings meant gentle cuddles and sweet kisses with Athena. Mornings meant padding barefoot around their bedroom as they readied themselves for the day ahead. Mornings were doing each other’s hair, sharing a meal with their friends, and wandering hand-in-hand through the castle gardens to admire the roses planted in Alain’s memory before Reiner gave them their orders for the day. Mornings were nothing but bliss, one of her absolute favourite times of day.

Once upon a time she had been told she was not built for peace, and had even come to believe it for a while. But the Witch Queen had been wrong. She had been wrong. She was built for peace and for happiness...and she knew without one shadow of a doubt that she had not only earned the right to both, but deserved both.


End file.
